The Blog

John Piper: Quote

John Piper has famously stated: Ã¢â‚¬Å“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢tÃ¢â‚¬Â (Let the Nations Be Glad, 11).An important corollary understanding of this concept is to see the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:35-40) as primary, and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) as a hugely important means to that even greater end. The love for God enjoined in the Great Commandment is vertical in its focus, purely God-centered and -directed, and is eternal in its scope (hence is in fact worship); the Great Commission, on the other hand, is by definition man-centered and -directed and (as Piper says about missions) Ã¢â‚¬Å“a temporary necessity.Ã¢â‚¬Â

In addition, when we consider that the culmination of the discipleship process involves Ã¢â‚¬Å“teaching them to obey all that [Jesus] commanded [them]Ã¢â‚¬Â (28:20), we should take note that, according to Jesus himself, the most important of those commanded things is in fact the Great Commandment!

Hence the ultimate consummation of the Great Commission is teaching disciples to be whole-hearted worshipers.